T
The420Guy
Guest
A half tonne of marijuana stashed in a shipment of string beans was
seized at the Windsor-Detroit border, leading to charges against two
men yesterday.
The bust is the culmination of a 10-month Canada Customs and RCMP
investigation that led them to a Toronto- area produce importer,
police said yesterday.
Customs officers at the Ambassador Bridge, which sees up to 7,500
tractor-trailers cross each day, searched the truck Thursday after it
fit the profile of an expected drug shipment.
Police then followed the truck to a warehouse and arrested eight men.
They later released six.
"Most of the people in the warehouse were hired by the company to
off-load the trailer," RCMP Const. Howard Adams said. "The trucking
company and the drivers have nothing to do with the drugs that were
found."
FROM U.S. SOUTHWEST
The 517 kilos of pot, with an estimated street value of $7.7 million,
were hidden in 76 boxes of string beans in the nose of the trailer,
which carried more than a thousand crates of Mexican produce. The
compressed bricks of cannabis, which police believe was grown in the
southwestern U.S., were wrapped in layers of plastic and masking tape.
Customs originally alerted the RCMP of possible drug shipments
entering Canada via produce importers when it stopped two Mexican men
with criminal records who tried entering at Niagara Falls last April.
The men, who were investigated after failing to produce ownership for
the car, had links to a prior U.S. drug seizure and to vegetable
importing and exporting.
Adams said the investigation boiled down to co-operation between the
different agencies ranging from Canada and U.S. Customs to Toronto
Police.
Wayne David Yee, of River St., Toronto, and Pablo Nabor Gomez Juarez,
31, of Mexico, are charged with drug-trafficking.
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact: editor@sunpub.com
Website: Canoe.Com
Author: Kevin Masterman
Pubdate: February 18, 2001
seized at the Windsor-Detroit border, leading to charges against two
men yesterday.
The bust is the culmination of a 10-month Canada Customs and RCMP
investigation that led them to a Toronto- area produce importer,
police said yesterday.
Customs officers at the Ambassador Bridge, which sees up to 7,500
tractor-trailers cross each day, searched the truck Thursday after it
fit the profile of an expected drug shipment.
Police then followed the truck to a warehouse and arrested eight men.
They later released six.
"Most of the people in the warehouse were hired by the company to
off-load the trailer," RCMP Const. Howard Adams said. "The trucking
company and the drivers have nothing to do with the drugs that were
found."
FROM U.S. SOUTHWEST
The 517 kilos of pot, with an estimated street value of $7.7 million,
were hidden in 76 boxes of string beans in the nose of the trailer,
which carried more than a thousand crates of Mexican produce. The
compressed bricks of cannabis, which police believe was grown in the
southwestern U.S., were wrapped in layers of plastic and masking tape.
Customs originally alerted the RCMP of possible drug shipments
entering Canada via produce importers when it stopped two Mexican men
with criminal records who tried entering at Niagara Falls last April.
The men, who were investigated after failing to produce ownership for
the car, had links to a prior U.S. drug seizure and to vegetable
importing and exporting.
Adams said the investigation boiled down to co-operation between the
different agencies ranging from Canada and U.S. Customs to Toronto
Police.
Wayne David Yee, of River St., Toronto, and Pablo Nabor Gomez Juarez,
31, of Mexico, are charged with drug-trafficking.
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact: editor@sunpub.com
Website: Canoe.Com
Author: Kevin Masterman
Pubdate: February 18, 2001
